Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he thinks everyone should have the right to vote — even the Boston Marathon bomber.
Asked at a CNN town hall Monday night if he thought felons should be allowed to vote — even while they’re incarcerated, not just after they’re released — Sanders said the country needs more people to vote.
“This is a democracy and we have got to expand that democracy, and I believe every single person does have the right to vote,” he said.
Sanders started his answer by pointing out the low rate of voter turnout in the United States when compared to other major democracies around the world. He said one of the primary priorities of his campaign is to make the US a “vibrant” democracy with a much higher voter turnout.
And, Sanders said, enfranchising people like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — the US citizen who helped bomb the Boston Marathon in 2013, killing three and injuring hundreds of others — is a part of that.
“Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope,” Sanders said when asked by a student if sex offenders, the Boston Marathon bomber, terrorists and murderers should have voting rights.